Higgins widens lead over Jackson

Spokane Valley Mayor Rod Higgins widened his lead over challenger Chris Jackson in the latest ballot count Thursday.

Jackson was ahead on election night, but Higgins has picked up enough votes in the central part of the city to overcome Jackson’s early lead. Higgins, who holds the Position 1 seat and has been chosen as mayor by the council, leads by 251 votes with about 1,000 ballots from the city still to be counted.

Two tight races for Waverly Town Council likely were decided in Thursday’s count. Lori Stark appears to have won the Position 1 seat with 33 votes to Kim Billington’s 25. Alexander Fuchs has 33 votes to Devin Billington’s 24. While those are small margins, the Elections Department currently only has one more vote from Waverly on hand.

Paul Curtis leads William Tensfield for Waverly mayor by two votes. Unless more votes from the south Spokane County town arrive in the mail postmarked before 8 p.m. Tuesday, Curtis will win that race.

Melanie Meagher is the likely winner of a Latah Town Council position. She has 28 votes compared to 22 for Steve Leitz and 18 for Yvonne Warren in the three-way race. There are only six ballots from Latah left among those that remain to be counted, and Leitz would have to be marked on all six to tie the race.

Several other races for local school, water and fire districts remain too close to call based on the number of ballots still to be counted in those districts

The elections office has about 9,000 ballots from around the county remaining. The next count is scheduled for Monday.